Traded for Water
by KuraOkami13
Summary: ONESHOT It's not that Lorelei's jealous that Lance finally got himself a girlfriend, it's just a little strange to see him so happy and open with Misty as opposed to him being, well, NOT, with her. Karen makes sure she doesn't start anything. LanceMisty-Kingdrashipping, past-LanceLorelei, implied-WillKaren


This is a crack pairing. Specifically, of LancexMisty, also officially known as rageshipping but who cares about that stupid name when it could be called KINGDRASHIPPING, EH? EH? GET IT? Anyway, you have been warned.

New Personal Headcanons: Lorelei and Karen do not get along. Karen doesn't mind Lance's relationship, but she's more than happy to take its existence and plaster it into Lorelei's face, but more importantly, Karen doesn't want Lorelei anywhere near her blossoming OTP. Lorelei is mistakenly called Prima in the anime, so I've decided Prima's her last name, so say hi to Lorelei Prima.

Warning: I'm not sure whether to say she is or isn't OOC, as int he games Lorelei was pretty calm and cool, but in the anime she was quite loosey-goosey "row with the flow" and kinda air-headed up until battle time. But if you think she's OOC, then I'm going to just go ahead and say sorry, but that's how she came about here. Same with Lance, Misty, and Karen.

* * *

Watching them was strange, for Lorelei Prima.

Her relationship had ended years ago, though there had been several one-night-stands here and there, to the point that it had become an accepted thought that Lance was a single man, and it would stay that way. It didn't quite process that, you know, he might actually _meet_ somebody. And that they would, additionally, _stick_.

Lorelei was absolutely sure she wasn't jealous, nothing of that sort. Still, it wasn't quit computing quite right what she was seeing. Years of one-nights and Lance staying married to his championship made it hard for her to make sense of the scene plainly playing before her.

Laughter, careless smiling, and lots of splashing water was involved as two redheads let themselves go in the ocean water. He was in plain navy swim trunks, with white outlines of some basic, overused floral pattern. No capes, nothing to cover the scars from training, or the scars from chasing down bad-guys and Team Rocket. His amber eyes were lit, even from Lorelei's distance, and they centered solely onto the woman he was with.

Her hair color was a neat kind of orange, unlike Lorelei's burgundy and Lance's carmine. Her eyes weren't dark blue like Lorelei's, but a vibrant viridian with a touch of blue teal. Her one-piece swimsuit was white with blue trim, and in Lorelei's opinion it did not show off her female curves or her chest, which was incidentally smaller than Lorelei's own. Lorelei did admit, as Lance managed to loop his arms around her middle, pick her up, and throw her back down into the water, her outfit did give a _swimming_ visage of athletic and toned legs.

The fact that he was dating was astonishing on its own, and Lorelei was still tripping over it, but that his girlfriend was Misty Waterflower was an excellent point to cover. Watching the grown-up woman before her break surface and tackle Lance into the water with a vengeful fire and trying to compare her to the starstruck little girl traveling with an excited boy and his pikachu was a forcefully-made connection.

The Misty before her was not that starstruck little girl. That girl had grown up into the woman before her, tackling the Champion with playful vigor and playing in the ocean water with him as though they were as normal and ordinary as any other couple at the beach. The Misty before her was a skilled and confident gym leader, a Water-type specialist, and who plainly had no care or consideration to the fact that she was frolicking with the _Champion for Mew's sake_.

Lorelei would have entertained the idea that perhaps the girl didn't know who Lance really was, but that quickly threw itself off a cliff. Misty was a gym leader of Kanto. If anyone should know the Champion's identity with absolute certainty, it would be _Kanto_ gym-leaders, who had the quickest and most direct access to the Indigo Plateau. There was no possible way she _wouldn't_ know Lance was Lance, and that brought up that she was acting like they weren't any less normal and ordinary than any other couple.

Which, on that note, wasn't so bad she supposed, but her brain was in such a mess it was a miracle Lorelei was keeping a straight face. It wasn't that they were wrong per say, but it kept dawning on her that it was an unusual scene to her that it didn't seem… right?

"People-watching a new hobby of yours?" came a silky voice, with a biting undertone. Lorelei nearly jumped at the intrusion of her thoughts by the Dark-type Master Karen. Her insides bristled at the thought of close proximity with Karen, but that was a given of their relationship. For one unidentifiable reason or other, Lorelei and Karen couldn't get along. Neither were entirely sure was set the other off, but they could tolerate each other in small increments at the most. Perhaps they could stretch it though.

"It does occasionally soothe the nerves." Lorelei answered back calmly.

"I'm quite sure that it is not so very soothing right now, by the look on your face." Karen shot. Neither woman looked at each other, trying to avoid eye contact if at all possible, but Lorelei had the ocean-deep feeling it wouldn't last.

"And who are you to judge my mood based on my face?" Lorelei inquired, though it was quite obviously a challenge that hid underneath the surface of her flowing words.

"A woman who has seen a dear friend of hers be built up and torn down by your flighty choices pertaining to relationships."

That got her attention. She thought Karen had simply come to pick another fight with her because of something she did (or that Karen _thought_ she did). Her words almost felt offensive to Lorelei, as the Ice-Master had always cared about Lance, and would never try to hurt him.

Immediately defensive, Lorelei broke her own personal vow to not be the first to initiate contact, and initiated contact by whirling Karen, "Built and torn, Karen? Did it slip your mind that our breakup years ago was a mutual agreement?!"

"And did it ever occur to you, Lorelei," she began, turning slowly and fixating Lorelei with a withering, freezing gaze, "what happens when you keep coming back into his arms, then leaving in the morning without so much as a good morning? Did it ever occur to you how many times I heard him, in the middle of joint-session mediation, punching walls and whispering under his breath _'Dear Arceus why can't I just fucking say no to her'_?"

Lorelei flinched, her teeth grinding. She _hadn't_. She really hadn't considered that all those one-night stands might have meant something to him. But how was she to know that? Last she knew, they had both broken up with each other. It had been a mutual split up, no hard feelings, and the agreement that there wouldn't be any take-backs.

"_Joint session_ meditation, Karen? I hope you meant for me to pick that one up, plus I didn't think you'd be the _type_ to want to get close to Will." Puns aside, it was a neat little thing to know, that perhaps the relationship between the Dark-type Master and the Psychic-type Master wasn't so professional.

"Don't even try to take the light off you and onto me, Lorelei. This isn't about me and Will, this is about you, Lance, and her." Karen said coldly, effectively shutting her down. Apparently, the Dark-type Master was not going to be having any of Lorelei's avoidances or attempts at curving the conversation away.

"Alright, then just what exactly is this?" Lorelei cut at her, "Hmm? Tell me that, Karen. Just what is this all about that you want to talk to me about. Are you worried that I'll hurt him? Think I'll turn into a possessive and jealous harlot and try to break them up like we were in some petty romantic soap opera?"

"You're too fluid and impulsive to be jealous and possessive, no." Karen answered calmly.

"Then why are we having this discussion?"

"Because I DO know you like a challenge when you see one, and that your whole "Go with the flow" motto likes to flow right into places it doesn't need to flow into."

"Karen," Lorelei sighed in exasperation, "Look, I know I have a bad rep, but I'm not some petty, jealous ex!" she snapped, "Contrary to belief, I want Lance happy too! I don't love him, but that doesn't mean I don't care about him! I want him to be happy, I want him to find someone, and look!" she waved her hands at the scene before them, the two redheaded trainers still blissfully unaware of either woman's presence, "He has! And you know what? I'm _happy_ for him! He's relaxing, he's laughing-_for Mew's sake, he's smiling_!

"When we dated he smiled, we had laughs, but damn was it like making an Onix swim trying to make him leave the League building or break from some noble quest. And here he is, with her, playing like they're nothing but a normal man and woman at the beach, miles and miles away from the League, and just…" she wasn't sure what else she could say, really. It was just all there for them to see, plain as day.

It had dawned on her earlier. On a really shallow level, maybe she really was a little bit jealous, that a shrimp of a girl had successfully gotten Lance out and about on his own free will. She was jealous, that a gym leader had gotten more smiles and laughs out of him in the ten minutes she had watched than Lorelei ever got in an entire month at any given time out of their one-year relationship.

"It's different, seeing him so open and free with her right now when all I've ever seen him be is collected and closed in to himself. I'm going to need time to really come to accept this change, but I want one thing straight between us, and that is that I'm happy that he's happy."

Karen was quiet for a moment, before a warm half-smile lifted her lips. "Good. Glad you had that straightened without me having to make you."

"I'm whimsical and impulsive, Karen, _not_ petty, or possessive." she grumbled.

"I know. I just also make it a point to grind your gears." Karen said with a shrug of finality.

Lorelei made an angry scowl, but it wiped away as they both turned away to watch Lance and Misty enjoy themselves at the beach. They continued to play in the water with and against each other, so very unaware they had an audience. After a minute of watching Lance's carefree, toothy smiles and Misty with her own smiles to match, Karen's head tilted to the side toward Lorelei.

"They are a bit of an odd couple." she admitted.

"No kidding." Lorelei agreed. "I didn't know that they could work, much less that they could find the time to be together."

Karen smiled, "That's the beauty of it, I guess. What are the odds, that a fire-spirit Water gym leader like her could warm the reclusive, heroic Dragon Master? And that he could equally keep her grounded and happy?"

"What, does she have a temper?" Lorelei wondered.

Karen's smile morphed into a satisfied smug grin, "Oh yes. It is so much _fun_ to watch her and Clair go at it."

"Do tell."

* * *

and that's all for now. Not really shippy, more contemplative on Lorelei and Karen's part, but hey, it's still about LanceMisty!

Anyway, review if you liked it. Or, if you didn't like it, review anyway!

-KO13


End file.
